The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
forbidden Honey the Theme Of
an Interesting Discourse.
The Various AIiuring Pitfalls Which May
be Included In the Category, and the
the Moral Ruin They Lead to
Safety Only in Obedience.

be Included In the Category, and the
the Moral Ruin They Lead to
Safety Only in Obedience.
For the subject of recent sermon at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage took forbidden Honey" the
text being:
did but taste a little honey with the end of
the rod that was in my hand, and, 10, must
die-L Samuel xiv, 43
DIR. Talmage said: The honey bee is a
most ingenious architect, Christopher
Wren among insects, geometer drawing
hexagons and pentagons, a freebooter
robbing the fields of pollen and aroma, q
wondruus creature of God whose
biography, written by Huber and Swami
meridian, is an enehantment for any lover
Of nature. Virgil celebrated the bee in
his fable of Arist8us, and Moses, and
Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and ST. John used
the delicaciess of bee manufacture as
Bible symbol. A miracle of formation is
the bee; five eyes, two tongues, the outer
having a sheath of protection hairs on all
sides of its tiny body to brush up the
particles of flowers, its flight so straight
that all the world knows of the bee line.
The honey comb is a palace such as no
one but God could plan, and the honey bee
construct; its cells sometimes a
dormitofy, and sometimes store
house, and sometimes a cemetery. These
winged toilers first make eight strips of
wax, and by their antennR, which are to
them hammer, and chisel, and square, and
plumb-line, fashion them fer use. Two
and two, these workers shs . the wall. If
an accident happen they put up but
tresses or extra beams to remedy the dam
age. When about the year 1776 an insect,
before unknown, in the night time attack
ed the bee-hives all over Europe, and the
men who owned them were in vain trying
to plan some thing to keep out the in
vader that was the terror of the bee-hives
of the continent, it was found that every
where the bees had arranged for their
own protection, and built before their
honeycombs an especial wall of wax with
port-hole through which the bees might
go to and fro, but not large enough to ad.
NIT the winged combatant, called the
sphinx atropos.
Do you know that the swarming of the
bees is divinely directed? The mother bee
starts for new home, and because of this
excitement, which raises the heat of the
hive some four degrees, land they must
die unless they leave their heated apart.
ments, and they follow the mother bee
and alight on the branch of a tree
and cling to each other and hold on until
committee of two or three have explored
the region and found the hollow of tret
or rock not far off from a stream of water
and they here set up new colony anG
ply their aromatic industries, and give
themselves to the manufacture of the sac
charine edible. But who can tell the
chemistry of that mixture of sweetness
part of it the very life of the bee and par
of it the life of the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product wa
hanging in the woods of Breth- ayen dur
ing the time of Saul and Jonathan. Thei
army was in pursuit of an enemy that by
Gods command must be exterminated
The soidiery were positively forbidden t.
stop to eat any thing until the work wa
done. If they disobeyed they were &C
cursed. Coming through the woods the,
found place where the bees had BEEF
busy-a great honey mandatory. Hone,
gathered in the hollow of trees until
had overfowed upon the ground in grea
profusion of sweetness. All the arm,
obeyed orders and touched it not, saw
Jonathan, and he, not knowing the mill
tary order about abstinence, dipped tn
end of stick he had in his han
into the candied liquid and as, We
low, and brown, and tempting, it glove
on the end of the stick, he put it to hi
mouth and ate the honey. Judgment fe
upon him, and but for special interventio
he would have been slain. In my tex
L To- tai
did but taste little honey with the en-
OF the rod that was in my hand, and, 10, mu!
die
Alas. what multitudes of people in a
so ages have been damaged by forbidde
honey-by which l mean temptation-d,
licious and attractive, but damaging an
destructive.
Literature, fascinating but deathfu
comes in this category. Where one goot
honest, healthful book is read now Their
are one hundred made up of rhetorics
trash consumed with avidity. When I'll
boy on the ears comes through with pi
of publications, look over the titles an
notice that nine out of ten of the books al
depicting and injurious. All the wa
from New York to Chicago or New Oh
leans, notice that Objectionable bool
dominate. Taste for pure literature
poisoned by this scum of the publishin
house. Every book in which sin triumph
over virtue, or in which a glamour
thrown over dissipation, respect fl
the marriage institution and LEI
adherence for the paramour, is depre
sion of your own moral character. tt
book binding may be attractive, and I'll
plot dramatic and startling, and the sly
of writing sweet as the honey that Jon
than dipped up with his rod, but 20,
best interests forbid it, your moral safet
forbids it, your God forbids it, and OF
taste of it may lead to such bad result
that you may have to say at the close
the experiment, or at the close of mi
improved lifetime: M
did but taste littlehoney with the rod tn
was In my hand. and, 10, j must die
Corrupt literature is doing more to-da
for the disruption of domestic life tina
any other cause. Elopements, marital il
trigues, sly correspondence, fictitio,
names given at post.office windows, clal
destine meetings in parks, and at ferr
gates, and in hotel parlors, and conjugs
perjuries are among the damnable result